March 5 was a Saturday that WFC shall not soon forget, as both D6 and D5 divisions were dominated and ultimately won by our teams. WFC is blessed with a group of young players who have the desire to work hard to achieve good things. We also have a group that understand WFC is about more than paintball, and showing our heart for “Selfless Service” continues to be our primary mission statement.
But on Saturday the 5th, our primary mission was to win the Winter Nationals, and that is exactly what happened. For our D5 line, having won the first tournament of the year in February, we entered the tournament as one of the teams to beat. However, coming into the preliminaries, we knew having the Palm Beach Vipers in our bracket ensured a tough fight just to make the playoff. 10 teams entered, which created two five-team brackets in which the top two teams advance with no wild card spots in play. As the tourney progressed, that reality hung over the boys head as they lost their match with the Vipers, and entered the last prelim match of the day needing to win the final point just to advance…and they did.
(From Left) Dylan, Andras, Bebee, John, and Ricky prepare to battle
Moving into the playoff with a 3-1 record, the boys were confident but knew their first match of the playoff was against Revolution, who entered the playoff a perfect 4-0. Having scrimmaged the line previously, the boys knew Revolution would be a tough out. After a tight first point, our boys went out and ended the tourney for Revolution by winning the match 2-0. Meanwhile, the Vipers ended Whils day with a 2-0 thrashing and set up a finals match that was a replay of the first tourney in February – Vipers against WFC for the tourney win. Having already lost to the Vipers in the prelims, Coach Mike Brozak and team huddled to determine a game plan to handle the Vipers dominant D-side player. Executing the play perfectly, the first point went to WFC. In the second point, Coach Ken Bryson of the Vipers pushed back with a strong play and his boys rapidly eliminated our line; however, the flag hang was dirty as one of the Viper players was hit going wide and it was not caught by the referee initially. As a result, the hang did not count, the second point was considered a tie, and the match remained 1-0. With the rules in place, this meant the Vipers had to win the third point in less time than WFC won the first point in order to win the match. Each team knew that, designed a play, and went out for the third point with WFC needing to slow play the point, and the Vipers needing to push hard and hang the flag quickly. Fortunately, our kids executed perfectly, denied the push, and ultimately shot out the line to hang the flag and win the final match 2-0.
All 8 D6 players hamming it up between points!
While D5 was battling, WFC was well represented at the tournament in D6 with two lines competing in 3-man. And boy do we mean well represented! In the prelims, our two lines finished 1 and 2 out of the 5 teams competing. WFC Red ended the prelims sitting in first place, having a record of 3-1 in match play. Meanwhile, WFC Blue ended the same way, but a loss to Red meant they ended in 2nd place coming out of the prelim matches. This set up a semi-final match between WFC Blue and Revolution Silver for the chance to play Red in the finals. With Revolution determined to end the day of Blue, the first point of the semi-final was tight, but WFC prevailed. In the second, WFC dropped a snake runner and quickly ended the match by winning the second point and setting up an all-WFC final match!
In the final, and perhaps the coolest part of the tournament, the promotor allowed all four members of each line to play (keep in mind this was 3-man at D6 level) since the lines were from the same organization. This set up an intense, but very friendly, 4-man tourney finale in which Blue took the first point, putting the pressure on for Red to win the second point, which they did. As a result, the tourney concluded with one final point between friends and team mates and in the end, WFC Red prevailed to win the final match 2-1 against WFC Blue.
Congratulations to all the players, and thanks to the players, coaches, and pit crew who worked so hard to help our boys prevail.
Check out video from our friends at Owen Media:
Next tourney is April 24th in Kissimmee, where the boys are competing in the MiLP / CFPS Orlando Open.
All three winning lines and coaches from the 2016 NPA Winter Nationals
Ben Green diving into Snake 1
Andrew Zak rocking old school WFC jersey
Tense moments before the final match
